By Moody Marty | Opening Doorz Editorial | July 08, 2026
How does one regain trust in FIFA and watch a World Cup match without feeling robbed of fair play? It is happening far too often, leaving a bad taste in the mouth. The recent match that has soccer fans tearing their hair out is the one where FIFA robbed Egypt yesterday in Atlanta.
FIFA’s Foul Play
Anyone watching the game could decipher the slant towards Lionel Messi and Argentina. A brilliant goal by Ziko was disallowed, even though the referee had initially allowed play to go on. Later, a stab in Argentina’s heart by Mo Salah (as he picked Paredes’ pocket and was clean through) was instantly shot down by the whistle. Referee François Letexier was working overtime!
Furthermore, a 93rd-minute foul went entirely unreferred by VAR, which eventually led to the buildup to Argentina’s winner. These are open examples of blatant daylight robbery with the entire world watching. And yet, the FIFA officials carry on.
There was Néstor Pitana in the 2018 final in Russia, where France was given a non-existent free-kick resulting in the first goal against Croatia. Daniele Orsato came to Argentina’s rescue in 2022. And now we had Letexier, strutting around like a schoolboy made monitor of the class, diligently following the class teacher’s orders, displaying his mediocrity with an air of authenticity.
Backing him are the masters in Zurich, the same guys who slept when Omar Abdulkadir Artan (the reigning African Referee of the Year) was stopped cold at Miami International Airport. There was no red card for the Miami officials. However, FIFA woke up the moment they were asked to revoke the Red Card to US player Folarin Balogun. Never mind that a similar offence by Messi on Algerian defender Aïssa Mandi went unnoticed.
These are not random instances. When pieced together and viewed through the microscopic lens of VAR, one can see the termites ruining the once-beautiful game. It is no wonder that the Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said, “I will not be watching any more World Cup matches.”
One can fully understand his sentiments. It is frustrating when a game that is supposed to unite the globe works instead toward cracking it. After all, we are living in transactional times. Corporates, TRPs, and moolah matter far more than fair play or respect for the fans.
I guess my internal radar isn’t misfiring. I feel a sense of injustice after having watched Egypt stripped of its dare to defy the Holders. How could they go two up? How could they stitch such brilliant moves to tear the heart of the Argentina defence and make them look like local club players? They could not be allowed to romp home.
Here’s the complete breaking down of the Egyptian juggernaut by FIFA.
The Disallowed Ziko Goal (58th Minute)
This is how you kill the beautiful game; cancel what one may term ‘the best goal of the World Cup’. When Mostafa Ziko dinked the ball over Emi Martínez to put Egypt 2–0 up on the hour mark, it should have been the definitive turning point of the match. Instead, VAR functioned less like an objective officiating tool and more like an edit button for the script. Letexier himself had allowed the flow of play!
To pull play all the way back to the other end of the pitch to dig up a marginal foul in the microscopic build-up is precisely why modern fans are losing their minds. Technically, under the strict, pedantic wording of the VAR protocol regarding the “Attacking Possession Phase,” referees can look back. But in reality? It was a massive stretch used to bail out a world champion caught dead on its feet. If that same sequence happens in the middle of a domestic league game to a mid-table side, the goal stands; no questions asked.
The Salah Ball Win off Paredes (52nd minute)
This was perhaps the most blatant generous whistle of the entire evening. Mohamed Salah cleanly nicked the ball off Leandro Paredes in the 52nd minute. There was one solitary Argentine defender left tracking back; Salah was entirely clear to run through and either score or slide in a teammate for a lethal chance. The referee blowing the whistle there wasn’t a standard error; it was a protective reflex. In elite football, there is an implicit protection racket for marquee teams. The referee chose to call a foul on Salah for his physical dominance rather than reward his anticipation.
By stopping that play, the referee didn’t just deny Egypt a goal-scoring opportunity; he effectively choked off a massive psychological turning point that would have broken Argentina’s spirit.
The Tackle on Salah and the VAR Silence (92nd minute)
When a player of Salah’s calibre is brought down in transition, and the referee waves it away without a single trip to the monitor, it completely validates cynicism. Why didn’t it deserve a VAR review? Because the threshold for VAR intervention mysteriously changes depending on who is being defended.
When Alexis Mac Allister allegedly fouled Salah in the build-up to Enzo Fernández’s 93rd-minute winner, the Egyptian bench poured onto the pitch in absolute fury, demanding the exact same forensic review that stripped Ziko of his 58th-minute goal. Instead of a review, the referee handed out five yellow cards in stoppage time to the Egyptians and red-carded a member of their staff.
The View from the Fan’s Ledge
When you look at these three events in total, they reveal the exact architecture of institutional bias. It is a cumulative series of microscopic decisions—disallowing an underdog’s cushion goal, blowing a premature whistle to stop a breakaway, and refusing to look at the monitor on a potential penalty. Egypt played the game of their lives and were systematically starved of oxygen by a refereeing performance that ensured the tournament’s biggest commercial draw didn’t pack their bags before the quarter-finals.
Am I crazy for seeing it? Or am I just one of the few willing to call it out?
For Argentina: VAR reaches back 30 seconds and a full pitch away to find a soft foul by Marwan Attia on Lisandro Martínez to disallow an Egyptian goal.
For Egypt: The referee blows a quick whistle to stop Salah on a clean breakaway (preventing VAR from checking it), and then VAR completely refuses to check a potential penalty for a foul by Mac Allister on Salah right before Argentina’s winner. It is the asymmetry of how the rules are applied that ruins the sport. One team gets forensic, microscopic protection; the other gets its rhythm aggressively choked out.
[Moody Marty: Sometimes funny, sometimes informative, always downright forthright!]
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